christinebarry.com

Wisconsin Democrats submit more than 1,000,000 signatures to recall Gov Walker

christine — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:01:53 +0000

Wisconsin’s anti-union, anti-middle class, anti-99% governor is about to have his hat handed to him. The people of Wisconsin have just submitted over 1 million signatures to force the recall.

The people needed 540,000 signatures to force the recall. This additional 460,000 appears to be a safe margin.

There is still a very long way to go in terms of getting Walker recalled. A massive amount of cash will again flood into the state from both sides in order to influence the outcome. But the mere fact that there’s already so much support for the recall suggests that despite the Dem failure to take back the Wisconsin state senate last year, there’s still a tremendous amount of grassroots energy on the ground on the Dem side — nearly a year since the fight in Wisconsin first began — in a key swing state in a presidential election year.

Sweeeeeet! How awesome would it be if their over-reaching causes them to lose everything next year?

Governor Snyder, are you watching Wisconsin?

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Asking for democracy is democracy in action

christine — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:52:35 +0000

Say what?

Well I was checking out this article on the MLK march on Snyder’s residence, and found this tidbit here:

“We elect mayors, we elect city council members, and we would like them to be a part of the process … in terms of rebuilding these urban cities,” Williams said.

“We don’t want our elected officials to be unilaterally dismissed,” he said. “And that’s the message that we’re sending here today. We ask that you would let the governor know.”

That was the message delivered by Reverend Charles Williams to Dennis Muchmore, Governor Snyder’s chief of staff.

Washtenaw County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi was also at the protest, and had this to say,

“This is about democracy,” … “That’s what we — the working people of America — have is our democracy,” he said. “And when the governor steps in and tries to take that away, that’s when we’re really going to have a problem, and that’s what folks are standing up here about.”

Other statements express similar concerns regarding the fact that Snyder’s Emergency Managers are destroying our democracy.

Dennis Muchmore responded by saying that Monday’s Occupy for Democracy rally was a great example of “democracy in action.”

I know, right?

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‘Choose Life’ plates would fund Right to Life through the Secretary of State

christine — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:21:43 +0000

Based on what we’ve seen of Snyder & the GOP legislature so far, this is definitely going to pass:

Among the legislation scheduled for review Tuesday by the Michigan Senate Transportation Committee is Senate Bill No. 600, which would require the Secretary of State to develop a plate whose proceeds would support the Right to Life of Michigan Fund in the state treasury.

According to Right to Life of Michigan: “Funds generated by the sale of ‘Choose Life’ plates in Michigan will be distributed to pregnancy resource centers and other prolife entities providing assistance to pregnant girls and women.”

There is no pro-choice alternative being considered.

A Slate legal columnist examined the First Amendment issues and concluded,

When the state gives license plates to certain private organizations to broadcast their messages, is it more like the state is talking (akin to a public service announcement) or more like it’s allowing private citizen to talk (like they would in a public square)? The former is constitutional, but the latter may well be censorship.

But Right to Life doesn’t like one-sided issues, remember? They sued Governor Granholm for the stem-cell research petition that was found on Michigan.gov:

The Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center filed suit Aug. 9 in federal court in Lansing on behalf of the Lansing Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, Flint-Area Right To Life and Right To Life-Lifespan. The groups claim Granholm, using public resources, discriminated against people who oppose embryonic stem cell research.

The hypocrisy is stunning.

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Welcome to cbdc

christine — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:20:26 +0000

Hello listeners of First Shift. Thanks for stopping by. This blog is about to be rebooted and will have new posts again in a few days. Meanwhile please feel free to peruse the archives.

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Report shows Shiawassee unemployment rate down

christine — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:26:21 +0000

The Michigan League for Human Services has issued a report (pdf) that shows some good news for Shiawassee. The unemployment rate for the county is down from 15.1% in 2010 Q4 to 11.9% in 2011 Q1. That’s an improvement of 3.2%. The number of unemployed persons in the county decreased by 24.3%. These numbers put us ahead of many other counties in Michigan:

All counties saw a decrease in their unemployment rate between the fourth quarter of 2009 and that of 2010. Although the statewide decrease was less than 1 point, there was a decrease of at least 2 points in 53 counties and two counties had a decrease of more than 4 points. Although there was a decrease in total jobs during that period, manufacturing jobs increased by nearly 10,000 jobs

Although our job numbers are looking better, our public assistance cases have increased. 1.9% of our families are receiving public assistance. The number of families receiving cash assistance increased by 23.9%, making us one of the top 10 counties in Michigan in terms of an increase. The number of families recieving food assistance increased by 18.9%.

Click here to download the report

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